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Video: Pakistan’s leader meets anger, misery in flood zone

UNITED NATIONS — A top U.S. envoy said Thursday that "many billions" of dollars will be needed to rebuild Pakistan after the worst flooding in living memory has left one-fifth of the country inundated with water and devastated the economy.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, said the United States was the first and largest contributor, and he challenged other countries, especially Pakistan's close ally China, to "step up to the plate."

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the Chinese have increased their cash assistance, supplied relief goods and taken responsibility for providing food, water and shelter to some 27,000 people in an inaccessible area in the north "so if you put this all together, it's substantial."

Both spoke at the Asia Society in New York ahead of a high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly later Thursday to spotlight the South Asian country's immediate need for $460 million to provide food, shelter and clean water for 6 million to 8 million flood victims for the next three months. The U.N. also wants to spotlight the enormity of the disaster, which is bigger than the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and this year's Haiti earthquake, yet has attracted far less in donations.

Qureshi said Pakistan is facing one of its greatest challenges — tens of thousands of villages submerged, around 1,500 people killed, and more than 20 million affected — and needs international help because its own resources are insufficient.

"We've never seen anything like this before," he said at the Asia Society, noting that only three weeks before the floods began Pakistan was trying to cope with a water shortage. "The economic cost is huge."

The Pakistani government has been strongly criticized for failing to respond quickly to the floods, and Qureshi acknowledged the skepticism and criticism.

"Initially there was shock, paralysis, but we are out of it now," he said. "We are getting our acts together. ... This was a mega-flood, so as people are becoming more aware the response has improved, and it will continue to improve in the days to come."

Qureshi said he wants to tell the world "what a serious challenge Pakistan is facing at a time when ... a democratic, elected government ... has succeeded in building a consensus in Pakistan against extremism and terrorism."

He said it was unfortunate that "this calamity struck" in the Swat valley, where life was just returning to normal after a successful government campaign against extremists and terrorists, and in south Punjab, where a similar campaign was under way.

Holbrooke said it's impossible to assess whether the extremists or al-Qaida elements are taking advantage of the floods because "we can't even get in there,"

"The water has affected everyone. It's an equal opportunity disaster, and military operations have effectively faded away," he told a small group of reporters after the Asia Society event.

Qureshi said Pakistan has not reduced its military forces fighting the extremists or terrorists, but he said there will now be an additional challenge of dealing with the floods and rebuilding water-ravaged areas.

Famed Pakistani musician Salman Ahmad stressed that 100 million of Pakistan's 175 million people are under 25 and they are skeptical and "feel abandoned by the world."

"All you need to do right now is to give hope to those young people ... who have two possible futures, one of following their dreams, the other of being sucked into extremism," he said at the Asia Society.

For the United States, Pakistan is vital for its strategic goals of defeating militancy and stabilizing neighboring Afghanistan, so its troops can one day withdraw. Washington has already committed to spending $7.5 billion over the next five years in the country.

U.S. Senator John Kerry, who is visiting Pakistan, said Thursday that the U.S. will increase its aid to flood victims to $150 million, stressing that Washington did not want Islamist extremism to increase on the back of the crisis.

At the Asia Society, the Asian Development Bank said it will earmark at least $2 billion for Pakistan's reconstruction over the next two years. Billionaire financier George Soros announced that he has given his Open Society Institute in Pakistan an extra $5 million to help the country's civil society sector assist flood victims.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A malnourished Pakistani girl named Khadija cries at the Railway Hospital in Sukkur, Sindh province in southern Pakistan on Sept. 13. According to UNICEF, more than 100,000 children are in danger of dying of starvation.
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A submerged strip of land is pictured from a Pakistani Army helicopter dropping aid in Khairpur Nathan Shah town, in the Sindh province, on Sept. 14.
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Flood victims, trapped on a roof top, scramble for food rations dropped by a Pakistan Army helicopter during relief operations Sept. 14 in the submerged town of Khairpur Nathan Shah in Dadu district in Sindh province, Pakistan.
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Villagers rush to board a small rescue boat operated by the Pakistani special forces Navy, north of Dadu, Sindh province, Pakistan, on Friday, September 10.
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Flood victims scramble for food rations as they battle the downwash from a Pakistan Army helicopter during relief operations on Monday, September 13 in Sindh province, Pakistan. Over six weeks after flooding began, new devastation continues across the Sindh province of Pakistan, as flood waters, still on the rise, continue to overcome new villages.
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Pakistani flood affected children scramble to get gifts from women volunteers as they prepare to celebrate Eid, which ends the fasting month of Ramadan, at a camp setup for displaced people in Muzaffargarh district, Punjab province, Pakistan on Thursday, Sept. 9.
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The body of five-day-old Akash is carried by his uncle and accompanied by other relatives during his funeral in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district on Monday, Sept. 6. The baby died five days after he was born in a flooded village due to lack of medical support, family members said..
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A displaced Pakistani girl pumps water in an area which has been occupied by flood victims in front of the DPS thermal power station in Muzaffargah on Sept. 5.
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Pakistanis wade through floodwaters to return to their home in Sujawat, Sindh province, in southern Pakistan on Sept 4.
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Children fly a kite from the roof of an abandoned building where their families found shelter in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province on Sept. 4.
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A young flood victim drinks from a tap as others fill containers with clean water to take back to their relief camp in Nowshera on Aug. 29.
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Villagers affected by the floods walk through the water in Thatta on Aug. 29. Torrential monsoon rains have triggered massive floods that have moved steadily from north to south over the past month, engulfing a fifth of the volatile country and affecting 17 million of its 167 million people.
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Children catch fish in flood water in Basera on Aug. 28. The United Nations has warned that up to 3.5 million children were at risk from water-borne diseases in the flood-hit country and said it was bracing to deal with thousands of potential cholera cases.
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Covered with flies, a two-year-old girl, who is suffering from diarrhea, lies on her mother's lap outside her family's tent in a village in Rajanpur district of Punjab province on Aug. 28.
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An army paramedic treats a flood-affected man at a medical center in Rajanpur District in the far south-western part of Punjab on Aug. 28.
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Four-year-old flood survivor Hajani drinks her morning tea while taking refuge with her family in a relief camp in Sukkur, in Pakistan's Sindh province on Friday, Aug. 27. Officials say as many as 20 million people have been affected by Pakistan's worst flooding in 80 years.
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Neighbors help each other rebuild homes destroyed by the floods after the waters receded enough for them to return to their villages in Sanawa, near Muzaffargarh, Pakistan on Thursday, Aug. 26.
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A young Pakistani girl, displaced from her home by flooding, helps prepare dinner for her family near Sukkur in Sindh province, Pakistan. The country's agricultural heartland has been devastated with rice, corn and wheat crops destroyed by floods.
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Nasiba, 3-months-old, sleeps in a hammock while taking refuge from the flood with her family in a classroom in Sukkur, Pakistan, Aug. 25.
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People move to high ground after fresh flood warnings were issued in Jamshoro, Pakistan, Aug. 25. The United Nations has warned, that up to 3.5 million children are at risk from water-borne diseases in flood-hit Pakistan. the organization is preparing to deal with thousands of potential cholera cases. More than 1,500 people across Pakistan have been killed and hundreds of thousands stranded due to flash floods triggered by the ongoing spell of monsoon rains.
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Allah Detta, 26, a flood affected villager suffering from high fever and spasms, receives medical treatment, Aug. 25, at the makeshift medical centre in the Sultan Colony Army flood relief camp near Muzaffargarh, Pakistan. The country's agricultural heartland has been devastated, with rice, corn and wheat crops destroyed by floods. The UN has described the disaster as unprecedented, with over a third of the country under water.
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Workers unload relief goods from a truck at an army relief camp at Sultan Colony in Muzaffargarh district, Punjab province, Pakistan on Aug. 25. Pakistan will have to demonstrate it can spend relief funds transparently and well if it wants more help in rebuilding after its massive floods, the U.S. aid chief said.
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Pakistanis displaced by floods reach out for milk during an aid distribution at a temporary camp in Sukkar, Pakistan on Aug. 25.
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One and a half year old Mudasar, suffering from diarrhea, is consoled by his mother as receives treatment at the District Headquarters Hospital, Aug. 23, in Muzaffargarh in Punjab, Pakistan. Officials say as many as 20 million people have been affected during the region's worst flooding in 80 years.
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Pakistani flood-affected villagers wait to board an army boat as they evacuate Kamria village in the Sindh province, on Aug. 23.
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A Pakistani boy swims as he tries to keep his food dry in a flooded area near Basira village in Punjab on Aug. 22. U.N. agencies stepped up calls for donors to deliver on their pledges for Pakistan to prevent what UN chief Ban Ki-moon called a "slow-motion tsunami" from wreaking further catastrophe.
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A Pakistan Army helicopter flies over the Garhi Khairoo, area near the new flood zone of Shahdakot, Pakistan on Sunday.
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A flood victim takes bath in a bucket while taking refuge at a relief camp in Sukkur in Pakistan's Sindh province Sunday.
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Flood victims travel through flood waters on Sunday in the village of Shah Jamaal west of Muzaffargarh in Punjab, Pakistan.
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A man and a woman displaced by floods, walk through flood waters on Sunday in the village of Baseera near Muzaffargarh in Punjab, Pakistan.
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A child receives medical treatment at a local hospital in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province Sunday.
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Flood victims line up for food distribution by the World Food Program (WFP) at a tented camp on Aug. 21 in Sukkur, Pakistan.
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A Pakistani family stands on its farm compound surrounded by flood water, near Bachel in Sindh Province, southern Pakistan, on Aug. 19.
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A flood survivor hangs on to a hovercraft and waits to get relief food distributed by naval officials in Sangi Village near Sukkur in southern Pakistan on Aug. 19.
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Flood victims run after a truck that the Pakistan military was using to give away aid at a tent camp Aug. 19 in Sukkur, Pakistan. The country's agricultural heartland has been devastated, with rice, corn and wheat crops destroyed by floods.
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Lal Pir power generating station is submerged in flood waters, further increasing a power crisis in Muzaffargarh near Multan, Pakistan on Aug. 19. Islamist terrorists may exploit the chaos and misery caused by the floods in Pakistan to gain new recruits, the country's president said.
(B.k.bangash / AP)
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People struggle to get relief foodstuffs distributed by volunteers at outside a camp for flood-affected people in Hyderabad, Pakistan on Aug. 18.
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Pakistani flood victims sit in a packed a U.S. Navy MH-53E helicopter during a rescue and aid mission by the U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit on Aug. 17 in Kalaam, Pakistan.
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Pakistanis displaced by flooding reach to grab a bag of food aid during a distribution on the road near the flood line outside of Sukkar, southern Pakistan, Tuesday.
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A flood victim walks on a damaged railway track while crossing floodwaters to reach his village in Sultan Kot, about 31 miles from Sukkur in the Sindh province, on Tuesday, Aug. 17. The World Bank will release $900 million dollars to help fund relief efforts for Pakistan's flood disaster as international agencies warned millions of people were at risk from disease.
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A flood victim holding her sibling cries after having her donated rice snatched from her by passing vehicles, along the roadside in the Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province on Aug. 16.
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Flood victims hang on to the back of a truck while evacuating from Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province on Aug. 16.
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A World Food Program worker sleeps on top of flour sacks in a hanger at an airbase in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, as poor weather prevents U.S. military helicopters from delivering aid to flood victims on Aug. 15.
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Pakistani boys displaced by floods stand in the smoke as health workers spray against diseases at a camp in Nowshera on Saturday, Aug. 14. Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said 20 million people had been affected by the worst floods in the country's history as the United Nations confirmed the first cholera case.
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A Pakistani flood victim sleeps on a hammock in a flooded area of Shah Jamal village on Friday, Aug. 13. Water levels receded in Pakistan but survivors of record floods endured grim conditions in makeshift tent cities, as the UN appealed for millions of dollars in urgent foreign aid. Pakistan's government says 14 million people have been affected by the floods.
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A combination of satellite images shows Nowshera, Pakistan, and the surrounding area on Oct. 7, 2007, on the left and on Aug. 5, 2010, on the right, after flooding struck the region.
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Pakistani flood affected villagers wash themselves after digging out their belongings from the rubble of their houses in Aza Kheil near Peshawar on Friday.
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Pakistan army soldiers distribute food among flood survivors to break their fast on the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Muzaffargarh on Aug. 12. The normally festive time is marked this year in Pakistan by misery.
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People dodge an army truck carrying relief supplies through floodwaters in the Muzaffargarh district in Punjab province on Aug. 11.
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Villagers displaced from their homes travel through flood waters on the back of a truck Aug. 11 on the outskirts of Muzaffargarh in Punjab.
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Pakistani flood survivors catch water bottles distributed by a military helicopter in Bssera village near Muzaffargarh on Aug. 11.
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Mohammad Omer stands with his belongings on a road near his village Karam Pur, 43 miles from Sukkur in Pakistan's Sindh province, as he flees rising flood waters.
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U.S. Army and Pakistani soldiers sit on the cargo bay ramp of a CH-47 heavy-lift helicopter while flying over a flooded area in the Swat Valley on Aug. 10. The United States has sent helicopters and naval ships to deliver supplies and rescue people.
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Flood victims wade through waters to get to higher ground on Aug. 9, near to Kot Addu in the Muzaffargarh district in Punjab.
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Grandmother Miru Mai smiles as she adjusts a blanket of newborn twin grandchildren, as mother Zada Perveen lies covered up after being rescued by Pakistan soldiers during air operations Aug. 9 in the village of Sanawan in the Muzaffargarh district.
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People check an unconscious baby, who had been bitten by a snake inside her flooded house, after being rescued by a naval boat in Sukkur, Pakistan, on Aug. 8. Pakistani navy boats traveled through miles of flood waters to rescue people stranded in a disaster that has angered many over the government's response.
(Akhtar Soomro / Reuters)
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Marooned flood victims looking to escape grab the side bars of a hovering Army helicopter which arrived to distribute food in the Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan's Punjab province on Saturday, Aug. 7.
(Adrees Latif / Reuters)
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Afghan families, also hit by the floods which have devastated Pakistan, work to rid their homes of mud, on Aug. 7 in the south of Kabul, Afghanistan. More than 500 hundred families have been forced to evacuate their homes due to flooding, which originated on the country's border with Pakistan.
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Afghan families, hit by the floods which have devastated Pakistan, work to rid their homes of mud, on Aug. 7, in the south of Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Children, whose families have declined to be rescued, wade in rising flood waters on Friday, Aug. 6 in the village of Panu Akil, near Sukkur, Pakistan.
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Pakistani army soldiers in a helicopter rescue families stranded by flood watesr in Sanawan near Multan in central Pakistan on Thursday, Aug. 5. U.S. Army choppers flew their first relief missions in Pakistan's flood-ravaged northwest on Thursday, airlifting hundreds of stranded people to safety.
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Volunteers search for victims after a passenger bus plunged into the flooded Jhelum river in Pakistani administered Kashmir on Thursday. At least 22 people were killed.
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Families set in for the evening in their makeshift tent homes located on a median strip on Tuesday, August 3, in Pabi. Rescue workers and troops in northwest Pakistan struggled to reach tens of thousands of people affected by the region's worst floods since 1929, according to officials.
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An army personnel carries a flood victim to a helicopter in Sanawa, a town located in the Muzaffar Ghar district of Pakistan's Punjab province on Thursday.
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Residents salvage valuables from their destroyed home on Wednesday, August 4, in Pabbi near to Nowshera, Pakistan. Rescue workers and troops in northwest Pakistan struggled to reach thousands of people affected by the region's worst floods since 1929, according to officials. Residents are bracing themselves for the worst as more rains are expected.
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Flood survivors jostle for relief food on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan on Aug. 3. Relief work has been hampered by submerged roads, washed out bridges, and downed communication lines.
(Mohammad Sajjad / AP)
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Residents scramble to recover water bottles dropped from a Pakistan Air Force helicopter on Monday, Aug. 2 in Nowshera, Pakistan. Rescue workers and troops in northwest Pakistan struggled to reach thousands of people affected by the region's worst floods since 1929.
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Vehicles are stuck in a traffic jam because of a demonstration by flood-affected people demanding the government provide aid to victims in Nowshera on Monday.
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A bridge is washed away following flooding in the Swat region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province on Monday. The United Nations and the United States announced $10 million in emergency aid for Pakistan on Sunday.
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Pakistani soldiers carry an injured Chinese engineer in Manshera, Pakistan, on July 31. The main was rescued from a hydropower plant in a flood-hit area of Dubair.
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Flash floods were triggered by heavy monsoon rains in river Neelum in Pakistani administered Kashmir on July 30. Hundreds of people across Pakistan have been killed and thousands stranded in the ongoing spell of monsoon rains with most of the casualties caused by falling roofs and walls or electrocution.
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An elderly man crosses part of the Islamabad - Peshawar tollway which washed away due to heavy floods in Charsadda, part of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province on Friday, July 30. Over 400 people have been killed by flash floods in the last week, with the country's northwest and Baluchistan provinces bearing the brunt of the storms.
(Adrees Latif / Reuters)
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Residents take shelter on high grounds from floods in Risalpur,in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province on Friday, July 30.
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Residents use buckets to scoop water from their house after it was destroyed by floods in the outskirts of Peshawar, July 30.
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Pakistani residents stand by flood water that entered a residential area of Muzaffarabad on July 30.
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